SPEAKER_00
Ready to break free from algorithms, vanity PR, and money sucking ads? My name's Larissa Worstiek and I've learned in seven years of jewelry marketing that content is the crown jewel. My agency Joy Joya takes a holistic approach, leading with laser-focused storytelling, impactful content creation, and strategic content distribution. This method has worked for the solopreneur as well as the multi-million dollar company, and now I'm sharing these systems and tactics with you.

Here's to standing out in the sea of sparkle. This is episode 231 and today I'll be sharing tips on how you can conduct a content and storytelling audit for your jewelry brand. So you can start taking all the tips I've shared so far this year in jewelry marketing jumpstart and begin assessing the current state of your marketing content and storytelling.

Because you can't see the way forward if you don't know where you're standing now. I'll be covering what's a content and storytelling audit and why is it important for jewelry brands that want to stand out in a sea of sparkle? How can you start auditing your marketing content and storytelling and what will you be doing with your results? From now through early July of this year, I'm rolling out a free, yes free, six month podcast guided program called Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart, which involves weekly audio and video lessons like this one, as well as companion PDF downloads for each new episode. If you want to sign up for the free full program right now without waiting a second longer and get the companion PDF download for this episode, visit joyjoya.

com slash jump link in the show notes as well. But before we get to the solid gold, I like to take a moment to remind you that this podcast has both audio and video, so you can either listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube by searching Joy Joya. You can support the podcast for free by taking the time not only to subscribe, but also to leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts.

And if you leave a review, I might read it in a future episode, so please let me know what you think about this episode or any other major takeaways you've had recently. Speaking of podcasts, did you know that I also co-host another podcast with Jewelry Marketer Liz Cantner? It's called Success With Jewelry. We've already released 25 free episodes everywhere you listen to podcasts as well as on YouTube.

We also have an insider community where we share extended episodes, hands-on guidance, and a plethora of actionable resources. Visit successwithjewelry.com to sign up and learn more.

Okay, my sparklers, let's get into the next installment of Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart, all about auditing your jewelry marketing content and storytelling. Again, you can visit joyjoya.com slash jump for the companion PDF to this episode.

It's free, so why not? So let's talk about the answer to the first question I'm posing for you today. What is a content and storytelling audit and why is it important for jewelry brands that want to be standing out in a sea and create their own sea of sparkle? So first, you'll want to shift your mindset about content. Content is valuable and you need to start thinking that way.

Each piece of content that you put out there for your business should be considered an asset since it's something that you can eventually repurpose and reuse and then continue to gain benefits from in the future. The same way that like if you were to buy a home, your home is an asset that will hopefully gain value over time. Your content is like the home that you buy for your business.

It is an asset and you need to think that way. So auditing your marketing content and storytelling means looking at all the assets you've already created up until this point and then deciding whether or not they they're still aligned with your brand and your approach to storytelling, as well as whether or not each asset is helping you move forward toward achieving your business and marketing goals. If you were to search right now for content audit on Google, just to get some more perspective, you'll likely find some tutorials that require technical know how some familiarity with search engine optimization or SEO.

I promise we're going to get into SEO later in jewelry marketing jumpstart. So I want to make this version of the content and storytelling audit as friendly to a beginner as possible so that you don't have to know that stuff yet in order to do this audit. I just am saying that to let you know that there are definitely different levels of how deep you can go with this.

So when I'm saying the word content, I'm referring to the following items, but they're definitely not limited to this list. So blog posts, homepage content about us, page content or brand story content, any other landing pages or informational pages on your website, educational materials that you share with clients, whether those are printed materials or PDF downloads or some other kind of resource, any storytelling on your product pages or in your product descriptions, gift guides or other free downloads and PDFs, any printed marketing assets that you have for your jewelry brand, direct mail marketing, video and audio content, and quizzes and other interactive content. The reason why this audit is so, so, so, so important, especially for small business owners is because usually I find with the smaller businesses that marketing kind of just happens over time.

It kind of accumulates and gets added to. And then because the business owner and their team are really nimble and they're getting caught up in the present of their business and just like adapting to what's happening at any given time. They don't ever really sit down to review and assess their old content assets.

And then when someone does kind of do an audit for them, they find out that many of their content assets are super outdated. Just because no one has taken the time to go back over those things and oftentimes they get forgotten. And it's really important just as you would clean your house on a regular basis to kind of like clean your marketing house.

So I keep using the house metaphor in this episode, but I think that there are a lot of similarities. You want to keep your marketing house clean and tidy, you want to treat it like the asset that it is. So how can you get started with auditing your marketing content? Well, when you sign up for jewelry marketing jumpstart at joyjoya.

com slash jump and get the companion PDF. I'll have a link there to a Google sheet template that you can copy for yourself and use for your content marketing audit. So that will just make this super easy or you can even create a spreadsheet or whatever kind of format that works for you.

But basically you're going to want to have the following information in this spreadsheet or wherever you're putting these details. So first you want the name of the item. So something that you and your team would easily recognize.

So if it's like a product description, for example, of like your silver dangle earrings, you would just call it like silver dangle earrings product description. This is just to kind of give it a name. Next, if it has a title, like if it's a blog post or some other written material, write what that title is.

Then you want to put the content type category. So that list that I just mentioned, the blog post, the printed materials, the product descriptions, write out what the category is so that if you need to sort this list later, it's really easy to group these categories together. If you know the date it was published or posted, that's really nice to include here.

So you can kind of see how this changes over time. If there is an author associated or writer associated with it, put that person's name. If it's a digital assets like a web page or a blog post, put the link to it.

And then you want to ask just yes or no very briefly the following questions. Is it visually aligned with the brand? Yes or no? Is it up to date? So does it have all like the relevant information that is related to the business now? Yes or no? Does it still reflect the brand's story? Yes or no? And then is there a call to action or a CTA? So does this piece of content invite someone to do something else? Is there a button? Is there a clear instruction and just say yes or no? And then it's great to have a column for notes. Like if something immediately comes to you or you need to give context to this thing or write like a reminder for yourself, it's great to write that in a notes column and then in action item for the future.

You may not at this point understand what the action item is and we're going to go further into this in future episodes. But if there's something immediate like there's a mistake that's very obvious and needs to be changed or can easily be updated, then put that action item in there and set a due date for it also. And if you're not going to be the one actually doing the action, assign it to someone so that it can get done.

It can get updated. So at least right away, you'll probably have a few things off the bat that can be updated. Now that you know about the different types of categories I mentioned, like the possibilities of where content can go and you see your whole list in this spreadsheet, you can probably start to see where the opportunities are.

So where are like the holes or the gaps in your content? What things aren't you sharing that you could be sharing? What stories aren't you telling? Or where's your story not being told in the content that you already have? And as you think of these things, at least with the limited knowledge that you have at this point, I want you to maintain a running list somewhere of all those opportunities and gaps so that you don't forget about them and that we can eventually build and expand upon them. So now that you've kind of started this process, started thinking about it, what will you be doing with these results in the future? Or like, where are we going with this? So you might actually have a lot of ideas for creative marketing content at this point. Even just by looking at your existing content.

So you can definitely start fleshing out your ideas and maybe begin brainstorming the plan of what it would take to get there. But before you invest a lot of time and energy into any one idea, I would encourage you to keep listening to future episodes just so that you know how to set goals and priorities first before you decide which ideas are really worth pursuing. Because the reality is, if we really acted on every single idea and whim that came into our minds at any given time, we would have no hours in the day because they would just take up all our time and attention.

And luckily we would be pulled in a lot of different directions. So it's good to keep track of your ideas, but it might not be the most efficient way to pursue marketing to like do all the ideas at once. So let's hold on to them and then we'll decide which ones to prioritize.

I'll also talk about in future episodes how you can repurpose and update some of the content that you already have. But again, if you see something that's a glaring mistake or needs to be updated immediately due to there being errors or major inconsistencies, then of course, please go make those changes while you're waiting for my advice and guidance in future episodes. Okay, that's it for now.

Much more to come. I'll be expanding on this topic and guiding you through so that you can actually take this and act on it. Go to joyjoya.

com slash jump for additional information, action items and that Google Sheet template that I mentioned. And you will be on your way to content marketing success for your jewelry brand. Before we get into the gold mine as well as my jewelry marketing news roundup, I want to share a case study of a jewelry brand that I think touches upon what I just spoke about.

So these are my thoughts about how I'd apply the lesson to a jewelry brand in the wild disclaimer. This brand is not my client. I don't have access to any of their internal data, so I'm offering my observations as a marketer.

This week's case study is about Missoma, a London Brit based demifind jewelry brand that has been in existence since 2008. They make fashion forward designs that can be worn every day. So Missoma has a blog on their website that's updated a few times a month and it includes topic categories like behind the design, in conversation with style guides and more.

Lately, I've noticed they've been publishing a lot more instructive blog posts like how to style pearls, how to create a ring stack and how to style silver jewelry. I really love seeing that this brand is building out a content library and I would actually encourage them to do some of the following things. So I have a few suggestions for them.

One, I would say Missoma should set a reminder to revisit on a quarterly or bi-yearly basis to update some of those more evergreen blog posts, like the ones I just mentioned, and then make a point to reference them whenever they're promoting products that are related to each post. So for example, in June when the birthstone is pearls, they may want to send an email campaign linking back again to their how to style pearls blog post. It's something that's evergreen.

It can be used again and again and it should be expanded upon as time goes on. I would also suggest sharing some of these more like instructive posts with their customer service reps, with any influencers they work with, so that those people who are also involved with the brand have the language and the story and the ideas to also share the Missoma brand with others. So it helps people related to the brand just amplify the messaging even more and provide value.

I would also suggest building out some of the blog posts until longer resources that could potentially live on website landing pages or even in printed materials that get sent to customers, depending on what they purchase. I think too. And they may be doing this again.

I don't really know, but I would regularly check in with their search engine rankings to see if there are opportunities to update the posts with more keywords or link them to each other so that they can cross reference each other as resources. Also, another reason why it's so important to just not set and forget your blog posts is because if you have products mentioned in them or called out in those posts, it's important to come back to the post and make sure that the products there are actually still in stock and that the calls to action around those products are clear. So that if they need to be swapped due to a product being discontinued or the price being wrong, then you can ensure that anyone who finds those blog posts a year from now, two years from now can still move forward with their shopping journey and they don't like find a broken link or a mistake.

They can also crowdsource from their customers and fans to see what those people would like to know. Although I'm really excited that Missoma has a blog and they're delivering this amazing value. The topics are kind of boring to be honest and they're not unique or differentiating themselves in any other way that I haven't seen on any other jewelry brand blog.

So how can this brand maybe like put a spin on the content to really make it their own? Though the benefits of the blog are not limited to search engine rankings, a blog definitely does help with that. So I have this SEO tool that I use with clients and I'm able to run any website through it and see like what they're ranking for. And I saw that thanks to one of Missoma's blog posts, they're ranking in the top 10 search results in Google for the keyword how to stack bracelets just to give you one example.

So there is a true benefit that they are getting from publishing these posts. What do you think? You can check out the Missoma blog for yourself in the show notes. Okay, let's get into the goldmine.

So if you're new to this podcast, the goldmine is a segment that's a little more personal take for me. It's usually around mindset or entrepreneur entrepreneurship or business challenges. Today's topic is based on a quote that I came across by marketing expert Seth Godin, one of my absolute favorites.

And I want to share it with you as a prompt for further reflection. So he wrote on his own blog back in 2012. That was a long time ago, but I think this quote is more relevant and more true today than ever before.

He says quote, but everyone doesn't deserve their own audience. That's something that's earned end quote. Let that sink in for a second.

Nowadays, business owners have access to so many digital platforms where they can promote their products and their brands. So with that access, they have the potential for a huge audience at their fingertips. Just as an example, you can create a business account on TikTok today and theoretically have access to TikTok's 1 billion active users.

The idea of that is kind of thrilling, right? So with that intoxicating illusion in their minds, entrepreneurs then get this idea in their heads that if they build it, people will come because the potential for connecting is out there. They think, all I have to do is just post on my social media accounts, send my emails, deliver my ads, and I will be golden. But doesn't that sound to you like a really entitled outlook? I'm not saying you are entitled my sparklers because I know you all are amazing, but I do want to remind you that what Seth Godin says is true.

You have to earn your audience. You are not entitled to them. They are not yours just because you exist wherever they are.

You have to work and you have to work harder than ever in the history of the world to earn your audience because you're competing with so much noise as well as so many other worthy brands for your audience's attention. So the next time you sit down to publish your upcoming social media post or your next email campaign, ask yourself, is this worthy of earning my audience's attention? Remember, your audience is people who you respect and want in your circle. So you have to go out of your way to charm them the same way you might do if you like really liked someone and you were courting them and like trying to earn their admiration and trust and getting them to like you back.

This doesn't mean being a try hard or about love bombing because your audience will see right through that. It's about showing up as your business's true authentic self and putting genuine effort into connecting and offering value. Not about expecting that checking all the boxes off and patting yourself on the back and saying, good job, I did that is going to earn your audience's loyalty and attention because that's not going to happen.

And then you also have to be realistic that earning anything, earning trust, earning attention, earning respect and admiration takes consistency and time and patience. And it's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to happen in a few days.

It's not going to happen in a few short months. You have to show and demonstrate to your audience that you are in it for the long haul and that you will continue showing up for them for as long as you hope to be in business and that my friends is what marketing is. So tell me in a YouTube comment or podcast review what you think about this.

What are some things that you've been trying lately to truly earn emphasis on the word earn your audience's attention. Let's get into the news roundup where I share three articles related to jewelry or marketing and you can always get these links in the show notes. So the first article today comes from CMS wire and it's called in marketing resist the temptation to go short.

Marketing is often viewed by many entrepreneurs as a cost or a tax rather than an investment. And this is especially true in times of economic downturn. At these kind of times marketing budgets get really hard by the pressure that business owners feel to drive down their operational costs.

So according to this article companies in these times tend to focus instead on these easily measured short term campaigns like they know I'm only going to invest this amount of money for this short period of time and we're going to be able to see the result quickly rather than looking at the long term picture. How can we build our brand that will make an impact a year from now five years from now 10 years from now. So the danger at only looking at these short term marketing efforts or only investing in marketing when you like feel comfortable that you have the budget to do so.

The danger is that it can come at the expense of long term brand building which can actually help support these short term initiatives in ways that honestly can be hard to measure and hard to see. So what are some of the most successful growing companies right now at this time of economic uncertainty doing to to be successful. So what are some of the things that are going to be the biggest problem in the long term.

I think that's the biggest problem. So let's look at the short term and the long term. When businesses are pulling back on operational costs and they're like, oh, well just cut my marketing budget.

Let me see what's performing and what's not performing and I'll just nix the things that aren't performing. I don't recommend that but it's so much more nuanced than that and not as simple and straightforward as just like looking at the numbers cutting this doubling down on that because you cut could cut something that seems to be underperforming and actually see that something else is impacted because you didn't realize in your branding in your marketing that the two were linked and it can be hard to sometimes measure what impacts what also in times of economic downturns while your competitors are tightening up their belts and focusing on the short short term. There's an opportunity for nimble small business owners to grab the attention of the people that you want to target.

So there are many arguments for not cutting back on marketing when you think that is going to be like the easiest way to cut your operational costs. I actually advised maybe double down and if you don't have the actual money budget, then maybe you can invest that back in time in energy and just in intention. Let's put the effort into the marketing now's the time to do it.

That's my main takeaway. The second article comes from practical e-commerce and it's called how to optimize for AI answer engines. What does that mean? So the future of online search is coming and it's kind of already here.

So search engine optimization SEO. There's now a subcategory of SEO called AEO and it refers to answer engine optimization. So here's a great quote from this article that explains this as a search engine improves.

It actually evolves into an answer engine providing an answer instead of in addition to a list of sites. This is why search engines developed carousels knowledge panels and feature snippets and quote. Then the user won't have to like comb through the search results to find the best answer anymore.

Instead, they'll get delivered one answer by the search engine and maybe you're like, okay, this is blowing my mind a little bit. If you use Siri, for example, if you're already a user of voice search, you know that if you ask Siri something, Siri is not going to give you like a list of possible answers. Siri is going to give you one answer.

So the future of all search engines is that they will strive to give you what they believe is the best answer rather than a list as you would have in Google. Now, as a business, if you rely on getting discovered in search engine results, if that is some aspect of your e-commerce store, which it is for many businesses, you need to prepare yourself for this future of search. Right now, you need to focus on so many things that we've been talking about in jewelry marketing jumpstart, creating helpful, informative and entertaining content.

And then moving forward in this program, we'll be talking more about SEO and about keywords and phrases. So you need to also be able to identify those keywords and phrases that people would be searching for to find you so that in the eyes of this answer engine, your business can be the answer or the best result. It's all about communication, credibility and deliverability.

My main takeaway is I'm not going to get too far in the weeds with this right now from a technical perspective, but I want you to know that the future of how consumers discover businesses online is already here. Okay, we need to be prepared to meet this future, which is actually now, by being the best at offering content related to our business and products, and being focused on delivering value through content. If I could like underscore my own words in the air, I would underscore being focused on delivering value through content.

And the last article comes from clickzy and it's called How to Make Collaborative Content Work for Your Brand. Have you been looking for more creative ways to generate content? I know it can be hard to keep up with that content grind. Try this tactic if you haven't already.

So collaborative content is a strategy that involves more people in ideating, creating and promoting your content. These people include your customers, your employees or partners or whoever you work with, and maybe even influencers. So the highlights of implementing such a strategy include having more diverse content, more creative content, just a fresh take because you're getting outside perspectives.

So it really allows you to cast a broader net online and satisfy the needs of more customers while leveraging stories, leveraging insights from those outside your own bubble. And that can build trust because it's offering social proof and more. So looking to collaborators to help you build your content, I wouldn't say this should be your primary approach to content, but it could totally help you add, as I mentioned, like unique voices, a creative take to your content mix.

Bring some diversity into it. My main takeaway is leveraging things like customer reviews and testimonials in your content is an especially awesome way to build trust with your audience and share user-generated content with them. It's also fun to get your employees or people you work with, your business partners, involved in your content if they're open to it because it shows that your business exists within a wider community and that you're part of something and again, you're not just in your own bubble.

That's it for today. Did you have questions about this episode about jewelry marketing jumpstart? You can always email me lorisa. That's L A R Y S S A at joyjoya.

com. If you love this podcast, please share it with a friend who'd appreciate it. And don't forget to subscribe as well as leave a review on Apple podcasts.

I also would encourage you to check out my co-hosted success with jewelry podcast with Liz Cantner. There's so much information there. You're going to need a notebook to sit down and take it all in and make a to-do list of all the things you can do to up level your brand.

If you're completely new to digital marketing, then you'll want to purchase and read a copy of my book, Jewelry Marketing Joy. Visit joyjoya.com slash book for more information.